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UW-led Panel Raises Questions About U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard

October 12, 2011 — A National Academy of Sciences panel -- co-chaired by Ingrid
(Indy) Burke, director of the University of Wyoming's Environment and Natural Resources Program
-- has raised questions about the United States' Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

A provision of the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, and
amended in 2007, the RFS requires that 36 billion gallons of fuel come from
alternative sources, including cellulosic, renewable and biodiesel biofuels, by
2022 to help limit the country's dependence on foreign oil and provide an
economic boost for the agriculture industry.

The National Research Council report, however, finds that
the promotion of biofuels will yield mixed environmental and economic impacts
and may be an "ineffective policy" for reducing global greenhouse gas
emissions. To meet the RFS goal, the panel believes industry needs more
consistent governmental subsidy support and research funding.

"Biofuels have the potential to increase energy security and
to provide net environmental benefits for the U.S. Our committee found, however, that the net
environmental effects are very dependent on how individual sites are managed --
for instance, tillage and agrochemical inputs -- and on market-mediated land
use change," says Burke, who led the panel along with Wally Tyner, an energy
economist and co-director of the Purdue University Center for Research on
Energy Systems and Policy.

"That market-mediated change is hard to predict, because it
is so much a function of human behavior.
If more land is plowed out to replace food or grain production because
of biofuels, that will produce more net greenhouse gases on balance," she says.
"If more land is converted to perennial grasses or woodland, that could reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. The development of best management practices for
different regions could help to ensure that increased biofuel production had
net environmental benefits."

The panel also found that it is unlikely under current
economic and technological conditions to meet the mandated production of
cellulosic biofuels. Higher oil and carbon prices and more technological
advances will be necessary to make cellulosic biofuels competitive with fossil
fuels.

The panel, composed of researchers in economics,
environmental studies and transportation, presented its findings last week to congressional and Senate committees in Washington, D.C., and to the National
Press Club.